Loaded Broccoli Cheese and Bacon Soup

This soup is luxurious. Cheesy and creamy and so incredibly hearty and delicious.

If the thought of bacon and cheese has you crying for a healthier soup, well, let your woes be gone!

The ten cups (ten cups!) of vegetables in this soup should put your mind at ease. Not that vegetables literally cut calories, but we can all agree they are good for your body and soul.

And if I’m eating a soup with ten cups of vegetables hidden in the depths, you better believe I’m going to throw in some cheese and bacon, too. It just seems like the right thing to do.

Like classic broccoli cheese soup on steroids, here’s what you’ll get with this loaded broccoli cheese bacon soup: fabulous cheesy flavor with tender bits of broccoli as well as salty pieces of bacon and gobs of tender carrots, celery and potatoes bathed in a silky, creamy soup.

We have officially declared this our new favorite soup of the fall season.

I think it was the first meal in a while that I didn’t even need to rinse the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher because the bowls were scraped perfectly clean.

And that was after most of us had seconds. I employed the boys help with all the chopping of the vegetables and spent the entire meal hearing them declare: “Hey, I just ate one of the carrots I chopped!” to which another child would quickly respond “Nuh-uh, I chopped that one.” Sigh.

At least they ate well. I would have declared this the Ultimate Perfect Miracle-of-all-Miracles Soup if there had been no quibbling at dinner. Still on the hunt for that one…

Directions:

In a large saucepan, combine the chicken broth, carrots, celery, potatoes and onion. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, until the vegetables are starting to get tender.

Add the chopped broccoli. Cover and simmer for another 10 minutes. The pan is going to be very full of vegetables and it might seem like it isn’t “soupy” enough since the vegetables overpower the broth but I promise it will all work out when you add the cheese mixture.

In a separate medium saucepan, saute the bacon until golden and crisp. Remove the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. Drain the grease and wipe out the saucepan.

Melt the butter (in the same saucepan you cooked the bacon in) over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes until golden, stirring constantly. Gradually whisk in the milk and cook until the mixture is bubbling and is slightly thickened, 5-7 minutes.

Stir in the cheddar cheese one handful at a time, adding another handful after the cheese that has been added has melted. Stir in the salt, pepper and dry mustard.

Slowly stir the cheese sauce into the hot broth and vegetables, whisking to combine well. Stir in the reserved bacon and add additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed. If you want the soup a bit thinner, stir in a little extra broth or milk a bit at a time until you get the consistency you are looking for.

Notes:

You could easily use turkey bacon here especially since the bacon grease is drained before proceeding with the recipe. Alternately, if you like to live life on the edge, you can use the bacon grease for the base of the white sauce and omit the butter (just make sure you have at least 3 tablespoons, otherwise, supplement with butter). This soup is definitely on the thicker side of things; if you want a thinner soup, consider decreasing the broccoli by half (only using 2 cups or so) or adding additional broth at the beginning or the end.

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Recipe Source: adapted from a recipe my sister-in-law, Melissa, sent me by way of her friend Meredith (thanks, Meliss!) – I made a ton of changes: decreased butter from 8 tablespoons to 3, increased liquid and used broth instead of water, used real cheese instead of velveeta and changed up the quantities of vegetables to name a few.

125 comments on “Loaded Broccoli Cheese and Bacon Soup”

I tried this recipe and the small issues were mine. It was great and I will make it again. My question is I cut the recipe to 4 servings and I think when I reheat the soup, the brocolli will be too mushy. I used fresh broccoli and it had crunch, can u make any recommendations?

This is my kids favorite soup! I love the amount of veggies in it! I add a whole bag of frozen riced cauliflower with the other simmering veggies. No one has ever noticed. My 9yr old recently discovered soup in a bread bowl at a restaurant so at her request I am making this soup tonight with your Italian Bread Bowls. Thank you so much for your amazing recipes!

We love this soup! I’ve made it several times now and it’s become my go to recipe when I want a creamy soup. The only change I make is I only ever add 8 oz cheese and it is plenty cheesy and creamy for us. Making it again tonight with your rustic bread for company.

This soup is SO delicious. My seven year old son–who has to be begged and bribed to eat veggies at times–gobbles it up every time and never leaves a vegetable behind. It’s also a very forgiving, versatile recipe. I’ve left the potatoes out entirely, bulked up on other vegetables, added less milk, etc., and it turns out great every time. Thanks for all you do, Mel. Your site is always the first place I go to for new recipes!

I can’t give this a fair rating because I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but I will say that it turned out amazing. Here’s what I did:

– I didn’t have any chicken broth on hand, so I used vegetable broth instead.
– To make the roux I added 2 Tbsp of butter to the bacon fat, instead of draining the fat and using just butter.
– I omitted the celery because I don’t like its texture in soup, and I didn’t add any other veggie in its place. This worked out great because it made the soup more soupy and less chunky, which I liked, and I didn’t need to add extra liquid like the recipe suggests.

Everything else was per the recipe. The taste and texture were incredible. My husband who isn’t a fan of vegetables went back for seconds, and I went back for thirds! This one’s definitely a keeper. I’ll have to try it with chicken broth next time!

A friend recommended this recipe to me yesterday, and since I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, I made it for our dinner tonight. It was perfection! I’ve tried other broccoli cheese soup recipes over the years, but we’ve been totally underwhelmed with all of them until this one. I didn’t measure out the veggies as I was chopping, and I’m guessing I probably used almost twice as much (purposely), but everything else was done according to the recipe. It was the perfect consistency – neither too thick nor too thin – and full of flavor. My husband even said “I think you’ve finally found our broccoli cheese soup recipe — this one is perfect, don’t change a thing!” High praise coming from my Mr Picky Pants. Thanks, Mel!

So, my family has this souo challenge doing on… When I looked this recipe up, I was only searching for a soup recipe to put my turkey bacon in… but, my children gobbled it down without any objections. The children all say this soup wins!

I didn’t change much… Organic bone broth, 1/2 a bell pepper, no celery, and turkey instead of swine. With a little salt and pepper we’d have had a decent veggie soup, but you were right, when you mix in the chease sauce, BAM!

I’ve made about 20 recipes from Mel now, but this is the first time I’ve commented. As with almost every other recipe on this site, I have the same comment about this one: absolutely delicious, but there is no way the prep time is accurate. I challenge Mel to provide video evidence of this recipe taking 25 minutes to prep. I love this website and these recipes, and I’ve come to rely on them almost exclusively for my meal planning, but c’mon…there’s no way anyone can cook that fast!

Hey Sarah – I’m glad you loved this soup! In response to the prep time, the 25 minutes is for chopping the vegetables and shredding the cheese. I know it’s a lot of veggies (and a lot of cheese!), but yes, I really can chop them and shred the cheese in 25 minutes. 🙂 You are right when you say no one could cook this recipe that fast! I agree with that. The cooking time is an additional 35 minutes (as noted above the recipe).

My kids have been begging for this all summer since I made it a couple of times last winter. I have put them off on account of summer is not for hot soups, but they are going to be thrilled that I am pitting it on the rotation now that it is cooler. They love this soup so much! Thank you for a great recipe!

I used this recipe for the cooking class I teach at a Senior Independent Living Apartment Community in Houston. It was an incredible success. I am making it again this weekend for myself and freezing servings for future use. My students all stayed for dinner that evening and most had two bowls of this soup. Trust me it is LOADED – with veggies and fabulous flavor and texture. It was such a success that this week the number of residents to attend the cooking class has doubled. Thank You Mel!

This was delicious. I did modify a tad. I didn’t have carrots or potatoes on hand so I excluded them. I added 1t. of thyme to the chicken broth & veggies, as well as 3 cloves of garlic to infuse flavour. I substituted bacon fat for butter. I used 3/4c. of cream cheese and ~1-1/2c. old cheddar. I only used 300g broccoli so reduced milk down to 2 c.

Very late to the game on making this, but it’s awesome…better late than never…made homemade Cheez It crackers and had all this cheese leftover…click to you and WA…LA..soup with cheese…you are always my go to for everything is AMAZING!!! thank you

I have made this soup a half dozen times already! My family loves it! My kids will scrape their bowl clean. I have searched for and tried for years to find the perfect broccoli cheese soup and here it is! I think pouring the roux in at the end makes all the difference in the texture of this soup. It is thick and delicious.

I travel a great deal and I am always looking for a good left over for my honey. This recipe was a bit of chopping and stirring, but it was well worth the effort. When I was done, my husband cooked up the rest of the pound bacon to add to the soup, I have to admit, it was not too much! Yummy! Thanks!

I made this recipe for a potluck and work and it was an absolute hit!! I’m not a big fan of creamy sauces or soups, but I loved this soup so much that I have made it 3 times since. I’ve experimented with it and it just keeps getting better.

I’ve done it with 3 cups milk, 1½ cups each of milk and heavy cream and I’ve done it with 3 cups heavy cream. I like the ½ milk- ½ cream version best. Next time I’m going to try with a different cheese and see what happens. I’ll let y’all know how it turns out. Think I’ll go with the Hickory Farms smoked cheddar!!

Could you make this soup in a crock pot? If you believe so, how would I recreate the same thick consistency of the soup? Not everyone eats at the same time in our house so I’d like to use the slow cooker, that way everyone can dish up when they get home.Thanks for the recipe & any ssuggestions!

Made this last night, and it was really good. I didn’t have all the ingredients. No bacon but had 2 Tblsp bacon grease and added butter to it to make the roux. Didn’t have celery, but I had 2 Tblsp celery leaves that I had dried. Grated the carrots but I think I’ll chop them next time. Used canned chicken broth. Added more potatoes. Used the cheese I had on hand. Used frozen broccoli and it was fine. Added a little half & half to the sauce since I had it on hand. Don’t boil the sauce and wait until the soup cools down a bit before adding the sauce so it won’t curdle. If the soup is too thin, add potato flakes or a little flour & water mixture. This is the kind of soup you can make all kinds of variations to, and it will be yummy. Thank you, Mel, for a great recipe! I’ll be making this again and again.

Wow! This was great. I made it last week and my hubby took the rest today for his lunch. I will definitely be making it again. I followed the directions completely and I think next time I will cut back 1 c. of cheese. The family loved it but we ended up adding more milk when reheating because it was just too thick.
Thanks for the great recipe.

So. Delicious.
My potatoes turned out a little too soft for my liking so I’ll just switch that up next time or cut them a little bigger. I used half broccoli, half cauliflower and while both were so good I actually preferred the cauliflower, so next time I’ll just do all cauliflower. 🙂 I’ll also add a little more bacon but that is preference only.

I discovered this recipe through Pinterest awhile ago and have made it several times since then. It’s so, so good! The first time I made the soup I cut the recipe in half since I was only cooking for my husband and I but it was so yummy that I was extremely disappointed that I had no leftovers…lol. From now on I will always make more than enough for one meal! The only thing I did differently was that I use Kraft Tex Mex shredded cheese.

Do you know what the serving size is? I know you say it serves 8…but do you know the weight or cup size per serving? or the amount of cups the full recipe yields? I want to know so I can calculate the nutritional info.

I melt the butter and than add all of the flour..than i have a clumpy mixture….and than i add the milk a little at a time whisking it…but i can never seem to get rid of the lumps….do i just need to be more patient with the whisking?

Carissa – try cooking the flour/butter mixture for longer, until it’s golden. Also, add the flour slowly – like sprinkle it on as you mix it in. Then just patiently whisk in that liquid and hopefully that will help. Good luck!

Mel you are a rockstar! Even without the bacon (I thought I had some but midsoup I realized that I didn’t 🙁 have any) it was delicious. I used half broccoli and half cauliflower because that is what I had and it was a hit. My boys too ate it without any complaints and licked their bowls clean (okay, scraped with their spoons since I try to keep the licking to a minimum!) Thanks for yet another tasty recipe. I already have friends in mind with whom I’ll be sharing the link.

I just made this soup for dinner and it was really great! It worked out well even with just half the cheese! I used the bacon grease and wished that I had eliminated the salt, because it ended up just a tad too salty. Great recipe! 🙂

This was great! I have another vegetable cheese soup that I’ve made for years but it uses a ton of butter and cheese whiz. The bacon really gives this great flavor and this uses a lot less butter. We loved it!

I made this tonight and my family loved it! The flavor is delicious. I do have a question on the consistency. Mine wasn’t very smooth, it was kind of separated, if that makes sense. Do you know what I did to make it that way? Maybe stirred in something too quickly?

Made this and loved it. Even my husband who is not a soup fan ate it 2 nights in a row. I used skim milk because that is all I had and I just used about 1/4 less than the recipe called for. I also only used 3 cups of cheese because again that was all I had! It turned out great, super creamy and chunky. Thanks Mel!!

As a blogger myself, I have to say, I know how much work it takes to create quality blog posts day after day, but I’ve gotta tell you—you’ve got it down! I tried this soup out tonight and fell in love with it, and I am smitten with your blog. So, from the bottom of this cook’s heart, a big warm THANK YOU to you for doing exactly what you’re doing—you’ve got a reader for life!

Okay, I’m back to report. 🙂 The only change I made was to use 2 cups of sharp cheddar (instead of 4). As for taste- I loved it!! It was deliciously thick and flavorful! I’m excited to have the leftovers tomorrow. The only part that wasn’t quite so good- maybe it’s because I’m a slow/meticulous chopper, but it took me a really long time to make this! The 10 cups of veggies are great, but do take time! Next time (because there will be a next time!) I’ll keep that in mind and try to prep some of the ingredients beforehand. Just my two cents! 🙂

Made this today – so yummy! I made it exactly as written but left out the dry mustard. Simple and fairly quick to make. Two out of three of my boys gobbled it up. Thanks Mel for yet another awesome recipe!

Hi Mel! Could this be done in the crockpot? It looks AMAZING, but I’m needing some recipes that I can start in the morning as I don’t have much time in the afternoons with piano lessons. Any hints or suggestions?
Your site is my go-to for recipes! Thanks for all the deliciousness!

Hi Rachel – I haven’t tried this in the crockpot so you’d have to experiment. You could definitely cook the components on the stove, assemble and keep warm in the crockpot (maybe cook the veggies a tad bit less if you are going to keep it in the crockpot cooking for a while).

Made this tonight with the pretzel rolls and felt like a total rock star in the kitchen! Thank you for sharing such delicious recipes! I added an extra cup of broth at the beginning, and it was still nice and creamy but not as thick looking as in the pictures. Perfect for chilly weather!

And yes, it freezes well. (I saw that someone asked that). I always make the full batch for our tiny family and freeze at least half for a quick dinner a couple weeks later. I even forgot about a container that we had until we moved and it was fine 2-3 months later (not sure if anyone else is that brave).

Just made this for dinner tonight and my family loved it!! Perfect soup for a cold night here in Ohio! I served it with some hearty bread and my kids gobbled it up. This recipe is definitely going into our fall/ winter rotation. Thanks Mel for the wonderful recipes!! I love your site:)

I made this for dinner tonight too! I used about 3 cups of cheese because that’s all I had and it seems perfectly cheesy. The only thing I think I’d do differently next time is possibly use a mixture of mild and sharp cheddar. The taste with all sharp cheddar is a bit sharp for my taste. Otherwise, yummy!!!

This looks amazing & delicious!! My only hesitation though is that much cheese. Do you think it would still turn out if I cut the cheese amount in half? Would I just have to play around with it and see if it works? Thanks!

hi suzy, just wanted to chime in on the use of knives with kids. I started my 4-year-old with helping to butter the bread for grilled cheese, them moving to cutting/splitting his rolls at the dinner table, using his small butter knife. Just small steps till his little hands get used to using the knife. Love the boiled potato suggestion by Mel. Next time i make hash browns, he’s going to help!!

PS to MEL. Thanks for the apron!!! It is good quality and I love the pockets in the front.

I happened to have all the ingredients on hand and made it tonight. So good! My husband and kids all liked it. Thank you Mel for all your time you put into your site. I make a couple of your recipes each week and they never fail me.

What knives do you have your kids use to help you cut veggies? My kids want to help me with all things food related, but I’ve been too scared to let them help me with the cutting. I would love a recommendation for whats worked for you! Thanks a bunch!

Hi Suzy – that’s a good question. For the longest time, I was nervous about letting my older kids use the sharp knives that I use…until my 9-year old got a really bad cut from using a butter knife to cut fresh carrots. Now, both my 8 and 9-year old use a small sharp paring knife. I am always right there when they cut and have taught them with every cut to make sure all their fingers are out of the way. My 6- and 4-year old get tasked with cutting up soft things like boiled potatoes, olives, cheese, etc. They can use a butter knife for that just fine.

OK, when the temperatures here in AZ get below the 90’s (I’m getting tired of it), I can’t wait to make this soup! Thanks for all your great recipes, Mel. I used to dread trying to think of what to make for dinner, but you’ve made my life easier (and more full of yumminess)!

The story of your boys at the dinner table made me smile. My husband and I are trying to introduce the concept of dinner conversation to our two and four year old. It isn’t going well and it sounds like we have a long road ahead of us. At least I can at least look forward to them someday being old enough to chop veggies. This recipe is on my to try list.

Wow, that sounds good. Although mine would only have 9 cups of vegetables since I would definitely leave out the celery…or maybe just increase the carrots. Do you think I could use a few tablespoons of the bacon grease instead of butter to make the white sauce? You know, save me a step and a little bit of butter?

Melanie, this looks like the perfect soup that I have been looking for. I do have a question about the cheese ……. I think a small 8 oz block of cheese yields about 2 cups shredded. Would you say you used one or two of those? The recipe states 4 cups (or 8 oz). Not that I think there is such a thing as too much cheese :), but I would not want to make the soup too goopy by using the wrong amount. Thanks for all you do.